Columbia College Chicago

So I got into the business side of it.

I went to my undergrad at Columbia College in Chicago for arts and entertainment management.

And my first job right out of college was at American Famous Talent, which is a talent agency in Chicago that represented Buddy Guy, Coco Taylor, Levon Helm, John Mayall, Frank Marino.

So a lot of the blues

My next guest has spent more than four decades helping shape American radio.

A Chicago native who studied broadcast media at Columbia College, Chicago.

He learned the business inside two legendary broadcasting companies.

First at NBC's MAQ and then at CBS's BBM.

And yeah, you're exactly right.

So yeah, that was it.

I worked at WVVX and then got a job because I was going to Columbia College.

And the key selling point about Columbia, and I think it's true to this day, is that Columbia really employs working professionals in the business.

This is now actually owned by the college that kicked me out of grad school.

Columbia College now owns the building.

So appropriate.

Yeah.

Yeah, I moved to Chicago to finish school, which was actually a very good experience, unlike other school experiences.

Columbia College, Chicago, at least at that time, was really great.

All the teachers are active in their fields.

Mostly what I did at that time was do a lot of writing.

So if you have something to ask Audrey, and yes, Lynn Fanning Walden, I'm talking to you, tell us in the comments.

All right, so Audrey Niponegre is a New York Times bestselling author, a visual artist, and a faculty member at Columbia College in Chicago.

In addition to her multi-million copy bestselling 2003 debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, she is an author of several other works, including two illustrated novels, an illustrated novella, and a serialized graphic novel.

How cool is that? Born in South Haven, Michigan, Audrey grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and now lives in Chicago with frequent visits to my favorite city on the whole planet, London.

Yeah, I would love that.

For many years,

I taught at Columbia College.

I don't anymore.

Before we talk about Arts in the Dark, can you back up a little bit and talk to us how you got involved in the arts community in Chicago? Sure.

Well, 40-some years ago, I was at Columbia College, Chicago.

I was there 32 years, eventually became the vice president of student affairs, but I was a very unusual vice president of student affairs.

always thinking about how to create an environment that inspires young people to be creative.

And so I was like the drama geek and I loved it and, you know, took a nap for improv-ing.

Then after that, I went to Columbia College and under Sheldon Patinkin, who was our rest in peace, was our chairman of our theater department.

He coached me day in and day out on everything, all techniques.

So then we're getting into techniques when I was like 18 and, uh, You got to learn all these techniques and it's several of them, you know, and read all these books and stuff on, you know, on the craft.

It was the craft.

And hone in on your skills.

And so he, you know, three years of that and then graduated from Columbia College.

Before that, I did Save the Last Dance and I did Light It Up in Chicago and I was ready to go to L.A. And then when I when I got to L.A., it wasn't much later that I booked.

And I think honestly, one of the...

I had a, uh, I went to Columbia College in Chicago, and one of my professors, an English Lit, I think, professor, told me, she's like, "You kinda have a knack for, for putting words together in a unique way.

Like, if you, if you want to do that, consider it," you know? And, and so I did, and then the next year, my junior year I think it was, um, for my biology final, I was work- my final, the big, like the big project I was working on, I, I, I'm a, I'm a master procrastinator.

[laughs]

Yeah

...

Columbia College is a big, like, art school, you know? Um, so that, that is absolutely perfect for a biology class.

[laughs]

And we made records together and really, really big inspiration.

And yeah, I had an opportunity to go to Columbia College for a percussion performance or or Berklee and Boston and I really wanted to move to Chicago to make house records really to be a part of the the whatever was in the water up here that was making these really concentrated groups of records and artists that I was really into and so I moved here in 98 ish I think is 98 99 and right after I graduated high school, started going to college.

And I was still studying music, like traditional music.

And I also started studying acoustical engineering at the same time.